Influence of physicians’ BMI on counseling practice for obesity in primary health care clinics in Aljouf region, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the perceived frequencies about counseling to obese patients, among physicians stratified by body mass index (BMI), working in primary health care clinics (PHCC) in Aljouf region of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: All primary health care physicians in Aljouf region were invited to participate in the study. The study was conducted between January to March 2020. Demographical variables and questions related to counseling for weight loss. Physicians’ BMI and questions related to counseling were analyzed to study the statistical significances. RESULTS: Of 118 participants majority were under 40 years old (47.5%) while there were 74 (62.7%) males and 44 (37.3%) female physicians in the study. Fifty percent of the study participants were overweight while 16.1% were obese. Significantly high proportion of the participants were agreed that patients are not trust on weight loss advice by overweight/obese physicians (P = 0.014). Secondly, over 90% of respondents were agreed to counsel their patients to do exercise and do dietary adjustments for weight loss however it was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Participants showed a general agreement that physicians’ own health has significant effect on weight loss counseling provided to the patients. Hence, it is important to improve physicians own health because patients also get inspired by physicians’ health and appearance and that can help to make weight loss counseling more effective and fruitful.